Effective Voice within an Organization Pursuing Unitary Human Resource Management Policies - Essay Example

Is it possible for employees to be provided with an effective voice within an organization pursuing unitary Human Resource Management policies and practices? Contents Contents 2 Introduction 4 Discussion 5 Employee voice 5 Position of employee voice in unitary HRM policies 6 Purposes of employee voice as seen from the perspective of unitary HRM 8 Unitary HRM approach mechanisms of employee voice propagation 9 Strategies of propagating employee voice in unitary HRM practices. 10 Employee Involvement 11 Employee Participation 12 Employee empowerment 13 Employee ownership 13 Profit sharing 14 Employee relations 14 Information, consultation and negotiation 15 Democratic or control mechanisms in unitary HRM 16 External Factors and government approaches 16 Employee Involvement and participation and organizational growth 16 Conclusion 17 References 19 Introduction Through years, the role of employees has been critical in any kind of organization because the human resource groups of a company are the most valuable and value bearing assets of an organization. Thus, the opinion and say of the employees also account for the effective and efficient performances of an organization along with other drivers of organizational performance and success. Employee voice cannot be solely related to trade unionism or any other form of unionism. Instead, there are many other approaches and mechanisms of employee voice. Employee voice can also refer to the two-way communication between the employers and employees which if managed properly can reduce both exit costs and transaction costs for both the parties involved. Thus, in the modern day scenario, employee voice has emerged as a type of contractual mechanism of governance which causes mutual benefits for the employer and employee groups. This report deals with the analysis of the prospect that whether the use of unitary human resource management practices and policies within an organization can support the propagation of the voice of the employees of the organization. The discussion includes a formal definition of the term employee voice and the analysis of the different ways and mechanisms of propagating the voice of the employees in an organizational setting. The various formal and informal mechanisms of promoting employee voice are studied and analyzed with respect to the unitary method of human resource management. The overview of the unitary methods of human resource management is discussed along with the advantages and shortcomings of the unitary HRM approach as compared to the pluralist HRM approach. Also, the importance of employee voice in contemporary business organizations, the tradeoffs between democracy and control, and the various internal and external factors affecting the voice of employees in a company as well as the government approaches related to employee voice in different countries are studied and analyzed. The relation between employee involvement and employee participation and organizational growth and success is also touched upon in the report. For a suitable analysis, comparisons are drawn between the unitary and the pluralist human resource management approaches by analyzing the benefits and drawbacks of both the approaches. The report is suitably concluded by inferring whether the unitary perspective of human resource management is applicable in the contemporary organization with respect to employee relations and employee voice or should these approaches be replaced by the pluralist HRM strategies to ensure better communication of employee interests and driving increased employee participations. Discussion Employee voice Employee voice refers to the direct and indirect participation of the employee groups within an organization influencing the decision making processes of the business. Employee voice has emerged as an elastic term because it is related to a number of factors including policies, practitioner actor and organizational entities. Employee voice within an organization is assuming a more critical role in the modern day enterprises. The meaning and the purpose of employee voice within an organization has changed over different time periods. However, at the basic level, the fact remains that the opinions and inputs of the employees are critical for the success of the organization because, the employees act as the most valuable entities and resources within an enterprise. The increasing complexities of human resource management and the scarcity of adequate talents and skills among the workforces have made it necessary for companies across the world to develop and design suitable human resource management processes and techniques that would not only engage the employees in the decisions and activities of the company but also empower them to put in their opinions and voice directly into the matters that actually affect them. Employee voice is more commonly defined as the means and ways through which the employees of a company attempt to potentially influence or have a say in the organizational affairs and issues that are the direct and indirect influencers of the work of the employee groups as well as the interests of the wieners and managers of the company. Employee voice can refer to the collection of different employee activities that are intended to modify the way management policies and rules and formulated and implemented within an organization. Employee voice also encompasses the voluntary expression of the ideas and opinions of an employee which are particularly aimed at engaging and influencing different organizational activities and processes. Employee voice encompasses enhanced communications from the side of the employee groups of an organization which ultimately facilitates the sharing and exchange of ideas, opinion and information and leads to upward problem solving techniques through the use of collective commitment and representation strategies. Position of employee voice in unitary HRM policies The primary objective of a unitary perspective of employee management within an organization is to balance the levels of employee empowerment and control of the management over the actions of the employees (Bryson, 2005). The unitary and the pluralist approaches of human resource management have their own advantages and shortcomings. The unitary perspective of human resource management can be defined as the belief of all the members within an enterprise to have the same objectives and interests and that all the organizational entities will associate the objectives and goals of the organization and direct their efforts and initiatives towards the achievement of these objectives and goals (Edwards, 1995). The process of enabling an organization to take up a unitary approach in human resource management implies that there will be no kind of opposition within the organization by the organizational entities in the process of the achievement of the organizational objectives (Budd, 2006). This also means that the unitary approach of human resource management calls for stringent management within a top down framework of management and control (Cole, 1995). On the other hand, the pluralistic approach of human resource management suggests that there may be a diverse range of interests present within an organization which are held by the different entities within the same. As such, the existence of different kinds of interests and objectives are also likely to lead to conflicts among the members of the organization. The pluralist form of human resource management accepts that this kind of conflict of interests and objectives is natural in an organization and needs to be mitigated or managed in order to achieve higher efficiency and performance levels and ensure that the conflicts of interests are minimized and do not pose as a threat to the attainment of the corporate objectives of a company (Bean, 1994). Earlier, the role of unitary form of employee management was the most common method of managing the human resource groups in an organizational setting. The unitary form of human resource management was originally adopted as a part of industrial employee relations management. However, after the 1980s, a significant shift was noted in the way the employee relations of an organization were managed because the focus moved from the traditional managerial authority and control to the integrated and strategic frameworks of HRM that were based on developing higher levels of commitment, motivation and shared interests and objectives among the diverse employee groups of a company (Ackers, Marchington, Wilkinson and Goodman, 2007). This form of human resource management was developed as a means to reduce the conflicts that were becoming common in the area of industrial relations and was known as the pluralist approach of human resource management (Colling and Terry, 2010). These kinds of employee relations management initiatives were first noted in the United States of America wherein three main types of human resource management models were introduced known as matching model, control to commitment model and Harvard model (David and Robbins, 1998). Almost similar kinds of shifts were also noted in the large organizations in the United Kingdom in which three main forms of human resource management were adopted, namely, unitary approach, pluralist approach and neo unitary approach (Colling, 2003). Purposes of employee voice as seen from the perspective of unitary HRM Employee voice is identified to be a significant driver of organizational performance, which makes it mandatory to formulate and employ the most appropriate strategies of human resource management that can support and facilitate employee voice within an organizational framework (Saleemi, 1997). There are many purposes that form the base for employee voice in a company. These may include the expression of dissatisfaction and issues by the employees, collective expression of the opinions and interests of the employees, contribution to organizational decision making processes, development of strong employee relations, harnessing of mutual harmony and cooperative behaviour among different groups and levels of employees and fostering the viability and dependability of the employees. All these factors help the management of a company to solve the problems faced by the employees in a quick and responsive manner, provide the management with countervailing power in managing the employee relations and also enable them to have an in depth understanding of the needs of the employees working in the company. Additionally, the fostering of employee voice helps to enhance and support the development of the organization in terms of employee relations, work quality, work environment and productivity. The voice of the employees has intense corporate significance when viewed from the perspective of corporate relations and industrial democracy. Since, the employees have enough power to influence the corporate and business decisions of an enterprise through various negative and positive actions like absenteeism and turnover rates; therefore, focusing on enabling the employees to directly present their inputs in the company has become a necessity for success and sustainability (Strauss, 2006). The unitary form of employee management is a hard HRM approach which does not seem to have validity in the present sector of business organizations. Instead, the process of unitary human resource management is seen as a distinct field from the pluralist approach of industrial relations because while the industrial relations management approach encompassed stringent regulations and high levels of conflicts of interests among the workers, the contemporary HRM practices include mutuality, mediation and maintenance of the interests and objectives of the heterogeneous employee groups and aligns with the unitary principles and assertion of the values, strategy and goals of an organization (Bray, 2009). Unitary HRM approach mechanisms of employee voice propagation There have been a number of voice mechanisms that are used by organizations and their employees over years. These include mechanisms like collective bargaining, negotiation, involvement, unionism, non union policies of employee voice, quality circles etc. Nevertheless, irrespective of what type of mechanism is chosen for enhancing employee voice within a firm, the ultimate results of how the employees are able to participate as well as influence the ways in which work decisions and activities are conducted within a corporation remain more significant for consideration. Employee voice may be raised through a number of individual as well as institutional channels. In particular, institutional channels like speak up programs, team work, collective bargaining, collective negotiation and quality circles are commonly used in the modern day local and multinational companies across the world. Both formal and informal mechanisms can be used to attain employee voice. The formal mechanisms of attaining employee voice within an organization include different types of communication tools like suggestion boxes and employee surveys. Other formal mechanisms may include the promotion of employee voice thorough different types of financial participation like opportunities for profit sharing and share ownership. Other than these, allowing the employees with the right of association to form trade unions and employee consultative committees for representation purpose are also used as formal mechanism for informing the employees appropriately and propagating the concept of employee voice in relation to critical decision and activities of the company that directly or indirectly impact the employees in any manner. The informal mechanisms of promoting employee voice in a company include electronic mail communications, special functions, employee feedback, 3600 feedback systems, informal one on one meetings, periodic corporate meets and general conversations between the employers and the employees, which encourage the employees to become more proactive about voicing their opinions regarding the organizational matters. Strategies of propagating employee voice in unitary HRM practices. Employee voice can be classified into two major organizational phenomena which are employee participation and employee involvement (Michael, 2007). Employee Involvement Employee involvement refers to a wide range of systems and processes that are specially designed by the human resource managers with the aim of engaging the employee groups so as to develop higher levels of understanding, support and optimum contribution on the part of the employees working in an organization. The policies and processes of employee involvement are also designed with the ultimate objective of associating the commitment of the employees of an organization to the achievement of the organizational objectives (Ed, 2008). The main objective of employee involvement is to deliver higher levels of commitment and involvement among the employees so that they can actively take part in the administrative and decision making activities of the company. This method also adds to employee empowerment and enlightens the employee groups to have a better understanding of the corporate activities and policies communicated to them in a transparent and informed manner (Stone, 2005). Employee involvement can also act as an useful strategy to reduce the psychological gaps between the employers and the employees in a workplace and in turn endow the employees with the ability of taking medium level decisions in their daily job roles without having to consult their supervisors or managers every time. This process not only helps in saving time in the organizational activities but also fosters control and empowerment among the employees (Dundon and Gollan, 2007). There are two primary benefits of employee involvement in an organization. These are that the employee empowerment and decision making capabilities help to decentralise the administrative processes and thus, help to relieve the management from being overburdened by administrative activities and secondly, the active involvement of the employees in the administrative and managerial activities help to foster higher levels of responsibility taking which automatically enhances the scopes for organizational performance and success (Bernadin, 2007). Additionally, employee involvement and participation also leads to increased commitment and accountability among the employee groups and uplifts the degree of job satisfaction and morale of the human resource groups which are the primary drivers of employee and organizational performances (Dessler, 2008). Employee Participation Employee participation refers to the process by which the employee involvement systems and designs provide the scopes for the employees to influence and wherever possible take active parts in the decision making processes of the company, especially in matters which are directly related to the workforce of a company (Beardwell and Claydon, 2007). Employee participation as a concept can be said to be the management initiatives and strategies which are aimed at attracting the employee groups to voluntarily participate in the organizational decision making processes and other activities (Terry, 2010). The voluntary participation of the employee groups can be triggered by the use of proper recognition, reward and appraisal techniques of HRM. Both employee involvement and employee participation are interrelated to each other and are also responsible for the growth within an organization, both at the individual and at the organizational levels (Lloyd and Newell, 2001). The terms employee involvement and employee participation can be conceptualized and propagated through the use of varying human resource management strategies. These may include employee empowerment, employee participation in decision making processes, profit sharing and maintaining healthy employee relations (Lloyd and Newell, 2001). These components of employee voice are discussed as follows: Employee empowerment Employee empowerment is one of the necessities in the functioning of organizations across the globe. Today’s enterprises operate in highly dynamic and complex corporate environment which makes its necessary for them to function in a time and cost effective as well as a fast responsive manner. As such, the need to empower the employees suitably is more profound so that some of the key decisions can be taken by the employees directly without having to consult their managers or supervisors. This system not only saves the time of the processes and reduces redundancies but also helps to engage and motivate the employee groups within an organization (Edwards, 2003). The main aim of employee empowerment by the management is to share decision making power within the organization (Tower, 2004). Employee empowerment predominantly involves the encouragement of the front line employees or demonstrates quick response to solve the issues of the customers and also take key decisions in their daily job roles without necessarily take constant recourse for management approval. Currently, employee empowerment has emerged as a mode of euphemism aimed at work involvement and intensification (Hardy and Leiba-O’Sullivan, 1998). Employee ownership Developing employee ownership is another major strategy used in the unitary approach of human resource management for creating employee involvement and employee participation. Different companies can enable the employees of a company to hold the shares of the same through certain schemes and thus, get entitled to the general rights that any other shareholder of the company has on the business. This strategy used in the unitary human resource management approach is seen as a useful strategy which enhances the sense of responsibilities of both the employer and the employees, thereby creating a mutually beneficial relationship among the two parties. Since, in this scheme, the employees become the shareholders of the company, therefore, they try to perform proactively and optimally with the objective of attaining higher scales of success and performance for the organization. This also helps to reflect the values of the individuals in the functioning of the organization, thereby enhancing the alignment of the individual and organizational goals of the business (Taylor, 2002). Profit sharing Profit sharing is another main strategy used in the unitary human resource management process to ensure that the employees are involved more intricately in the working of the organization. This strategy is followed through the payment of bonuses to the employees in direct proportion to the annual profit earned by an organization. This strategy acts as a form of reward and appraisal technique in which the employee incentives act as the drivers for enhancing the involvement and subsequently the commitment levels of the employee groups (Johnstone and Ackers, 2015). Employee relations The management of employee relations is crucial for the continuity and sustainability of any kind of business, irrespective of the scale of operations or industry of operations of the company (Dundon and Rollinson, 2007). The fostering of the active participation of the employees in the decision making processes of a company helps to increase transparency and results in the satisfaction of the expectations of both the employers and the employees of a company. This can be done by creating a participative and decentralised organizational setting in which the management themselves encourage the employees to contribute towards administrative and decision making processes. These are also done through the manifestation of units like quality circles, employee directorship, production teams and worker’s councils (Blyton and Turnbull, 2004). Information, consultation and negotiation Information by itself cannot foster participation of the employees in decision making processes. However, creating an environment in which information and ideas are shared and communicated among the employee groups ensures that suitable data are provided to the employees for collective bargaining and negotiation processes (Armstrong, 2009). Consultation with the employees can also foster better and proactive participation of the employees in the decision making processes and thus helps to elevate the level of employee empowerment within the firm. Also, if the responses to employee consultation are noted and worked upon by the management of an enterprise, then the scopes for healthy negotiations are likely to arise in the employee relations management framework of the company (Lincoln, Travers, Ackers and Wilkinson, 2002). Adequate levels of information, negotiation and consultation in the processes of human resource management can help to create an informed and efficient group of employees who are aware of diverse employment and business related factors like the external economic situations and the employment prospects, thereby making it easier for the human resource managers to reach suitable agreements for changes in employment and contractual relations which include components like transfers, contingencies and redundancies within the organization (Wilkinson, Dundon, Marchington and Ackers, 2004). Democratic or control mechanisms in unitary HRM A democratic approach to human resource management suggests that in the democratic liberal corporate world, it is necessary that the employees of a company have the right to association and participation in the decision making processes that directly or indirectly impacts the quality of their working lives (Wright, 2011). On the other hand, a controlling approach of employee management suggest that the management of an organization should be more concerned towards controlling the employees in a manner such that maximum work can be extracted from them through a top down managerial approach (Butler, 2009). External Factors and government approaches Additionally, many external factors prevailing in the broad environment in which the organization functions also impact the human resource management approaches that are to be taken up by a company to ensure maximum benefits. The factors like the tightly controlled labour markets and low availability of skills and human resources, government ideologies and policies, economic conditions of the market and the influence of the unions on the functioning of the company etc. makes it necessary for the management of any company to develop suitable human resource management techniques which focus on the interests and objectives of the employees rather than only on the management and control of these resources (Ivanovic, 2003). Employee Involvement and participation and organizational growth It can be recognised from several statistics of the market of the United Kingdom that the role of employee involvement and participation as a part of the unitary human resource management approach has direct relations with the growth and success of the organizations. According to statistics, the non union mechanisms of promoting employee voice increased from being 16% in the year 1984 to 46% in the year 2004. At the same time, the employee voice mechanisms dependant on unionism decreased from 24% to 5% from 1984 to 2004 and the hybrid or dual systems of employee voice propagation mechanisms decreased from 42% to 33% over the same period of time (UK Government, 2013). This suggests that the unitary methods of HRM remain effective to a high degree in the contemporary organizational and corporate environment settings. However, the sustainability of the stringent top down approach of unitary human resource management remains questionable in the complex and dynamic situations of the integrated and globalized corporate environment (Gennard and Judge, 2002). Conclusion Thus, it can be identified from the above discussion and evaluation that though there are several inherent advantages of the unitary method of human resource management, yet this approach is not sufficient in terms of generating employee voice to the desired levels within an organization. The employee voice mechanisms that are used in the unitary form human resource management practices are more than often strategic initiatives on the part of the management and seems to be more of opportunistic methods implemented by the management of organizations in order to enhance the intensity of managerial prerogative and control within the organizational processes and corporate aspects. The emphasis given on employee involvement and employee participation as included in the unitary approach of human resource management provides little actual or real influence on the way the employees are involved and supported. Instead, the employee involvement and participation approaches are mostly used as the ways to avoid or exclude unionism in the companies because, the different forms of contemporary unions often shift the control of the organization from the management to the employee groups. 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